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Friday, August 27, 2010

Ancestry.com's Yearbook Collection Yields Treasure

This week (or I think it was this week. Heck, I don't even know the date) Ancestry.com rolled out a new collection of U.S. School Yearbooks.

Whenever I com across a new collection or database, I use the test surname Lenertz to see what results I get. I know where the Lenertz's are and should be, so I'm always looking for something new and surprising. I was aware of my great-grandfathers 1910 Notre Dame yearbook photo and was pleased to see it in this collection.

Among all the Lenertz results there was a surprise: a 1934 yearbook from Oklahoma A & M in Stillwater, Oklahoma. There was only one person it could be...my grandfather!

He was a member of Kappa Sigma. This I knew, I just never thought I'd see it for myself.

Then I started thinking...my grandmother was six months older, maybe she was in this yearbook, too. So I go to the search box and type in my grandmother's maiden name and see a page with this:

Isn't she the cutest? All 4'11" of her. She was a Kappa Alpha Theta and very proud of the fact. Any mention of Oklahoma State University and my grandmother would always refer to when it was called Oklahoma A & M.

One time I was talking with my grandpa. He began telling stories and started to hint that my grandma was a real social butterfly in college...always at the party. Well my grandma overheard our conversation and closed the subject on college days. I'll never know what my grandpa was going to say about my grandma's academic pursuits, but I bet it was fun.

Special thanks to Mary Neft Hurst. Ancestry lists her as the donor of this yearbook for the collection. Without her generosity, I'd never have these treasures.

Love it! I do the exact same thing as you. I have some unusual names that I run through Ancestry to check on updates. I also don't know what week it is half the time! LOL! I'm headed over to Ancestry to check out the yearbooks.....